Friday, August 30, 2013

Read this - THE POWER OF HABITS

When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold – throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it’s asy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Business Coaching is not only about serious business strategies. It goes much deeper. It is more about knowing the clients, their dreams, their anxieties, their weaknesses, their insecurities and inhibitions. Our coaching programs are designed to connect with our clients and their needs at the core of their personalities and then define a suitable achievement and growth program. It is also about being a friend in need and providing honest feedback by being straightforward.

And YES! Coaching is also about having fun while we we are working out the next big thing in your business.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Read the quintessential qualities required to become a consistently
successful and growing entrepreneur. This piece is written by Mohnish Nair, a
Business Coach who helps people like you achieve immense Business and Personal
Growth.

No business can grow without the
growth of the entrepreneur who runs it. It is the entrepreneur who becomes the
central line of the growth of the business. If the owner isn’t upgrading himself
or herself, their business isn’t going anywhere. That’s a given! Here I share
with you the basic fundamentals that an entrepreneur must focus on at any given
point of time irrespective of the stage or the scale.

Ideas

Entrepreneurship is developed, it
is a skill. There are no born entrepreneurs, they build themselves. Entrepreneurship
lies dormant in all of us. We all have that inherent desire and wish to do that
one dream business or project one summer day. The fact is if we ask all the
people we know to write down their dream business on a piece of paper you will
get a huge pool of resourceful Business ideas to work on. The tragedy is very
limited people can visualize it as a profitable venture. No business is a bad
idea. Every business is a growth business. Successful entrepreneurship is about
taking a crazy idea to its logical plan and then utilizing the available
resources to commercialize the idea into a long term profitable venture. An
entrepreneur must always have ideas at the drop of a hat to solve problems,
address demands or to innovate new products. Working on creative thinking is
imperative to be a continuous resource provider of ideas. The key is in
continuous creation of new, better and different ideas without falling in love
with the old ones. Creation is possible only when the entrepreneur is
continuously learning.

Plan

Once the idea is in place, the
next step would be to create a clearly written down execution plan with step by
step precision of what is to be done to make the idea convert into a business
venture. Writing down the magic questions and their answers is the key. Magic
questions include the what, where, when, how, who and why. A plan is nothing
but a detailed execution methodology shared and supported by all the members
concerned in a venture. Most entrepreneurs fall short of penning down their
ideas simply because of lack of will or laziness. It is said that when you
write your plans down, they help you remain motivated and on track when you are
most knocked down in business. A plan consists of series of short, medium and
long term goals. A goal is nothing but a dream with a deadline. Having a well
thought of PLAN A and a contingency PLAN B are crucial in any entrepreneurial
voyage.

Risk

This is what separates the men
from the boys. Starting a venture requires the rare quality to challenge our
comfort zones. Doing things that make us
uncomfortable and destroying the status quo remains the fundamental essential
quality of successful entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is doing things
that are contrary to everything that has to do with the words security and
comfort. It’s about choosing the short term pains to actualize and materialize
the long term gains. Risk taking involves an emotional and mental decision
first which translates into a financial or logical decision later to do
something that has the probability to fail as much as to succeed. Risk taking
becomes easy when the entrepreneur develops the ability to remain confident
about the strengths and talent especially in times of crises.

Time

Entrepreneurship is about being
ahead of time by planning your priorities. Entrepreneurs wear multiple hats and
hence it is imperative that they wisely choose to do the most crucial and
important activities in their business which only they have the expertise of doing. Entrepreneur’s
must focus only on key success driving activities in their business and
delegate the rest to people who are better at doing those things than the
entrepreneur. Initially entrepreneurship takes a toll on the personal time and
space of the individual, however, at later stages, the individual develops the
habit of ignoring personal time and this leads to an unbalanced life. Spending
quality time on crucial revenue generating and business growth related
activities coupled with taking time out for family, fitness and hobbies is
mandatory for a successful entrepreneurial life. Developing the discipline to
follow learnable routines and at the same time having the flexibility to adjust
as per changing demands is very important sign in entrepreneurship.

Team

Can you imagine the pyramids in Egypt built
with a single rock? Can nations be built by the effort of a single person
alone? Difficult to imagine, isn’t it? The sum of the parts makes the whole and
the whole is incomplete without its parts. You cannot build a fantastic
business unless you have fantastic people working with you. It’s easier to
attract and nurture talent when you have a strong vision and purpose for your
business. Business building and entrepreneurship thrives on collective efforts
of like minded people moving together towards a common goal. Entrepreneurs tend
to be self involved to the extent of not sharing their ideas, frustrations and
dreams with others. Their initial experience of solitude makes them closed
emotionally and as business grows the entrepreneur doesn’t realize the benefits
of sharing. Leadership is about helping others bring out their strengths
towards the achievement of a strong purpose. Entrepreneurs must learn to
instill other people’s confidence and other people’s capabilities. It is only
when you build a team, can you build a great business.

The above ingredients, if mixed
passionately with solid persistence can help anyone build a fantastic
entrepreneurial venture. Here’s wishing you all the best for your Businesses
journey.

This article is written by Mohnish Nair. Mohnish is a business
coach specialized in small and medium size enterprise coaching inIndia. A young,
dynamic motivational speaker, creative designer and a strategic coach, Mohnish
has helped hundreds of business owners transform their world creatively. That’s
Mohnish’s motto in life, to transform the world creatively. Contact Mohnish by
visiting his blogsite –www.mapledreamsindia.comor write to him atmapledreams22@yahoo.com,